Harlan v. Scholz

Dist. Ct. erred in granting plaintiffs’ request for issuance of preliminary injunction in action alleging that Illinois state law (10 ILCS 5/4-50) that gives more options regarding same day registration and voting for residents of counties with populations of 100,000 or more than it does for those who live in less-populated counties violated plaintiffs’ equal protection rights. Plaintiffs failed to show that they would have suffered irreparable harm, but for issuance of preliminary injunction, where record contained evidence that Election-Day registration had positive effect on voter turnout, and where plaintiffs’ expert failed to identify which groups of voters were statistically more or less likely to benefit from same-day option and failed to establish basis for his opinion that instant statute severely burdened residents of smaller-populated counties. Also, plaintiffs failed to establish likelihood of success, where: (1) Dist. Ct. erred in using strict scrutiny standard in issuing preliminary injunction; (2) record failed to support claim that there was necessary correlation between affluence, county size and tendency to vote Democratic; and (3) plaintiff’s expert provided no evidence of discriminatory intent resulting from different treatment given to certain counties.